


From One Day to the Next

by LadyAJ_13



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 23:33:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3096677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAJ_13/pseuds/LadyAJ_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything can change. </p>
<p>When Sirius is aggressively pursued by a Ravenclaw he has no interest in, Remus is surprised by his reaction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From One Day to the Next

“Were you ever going to tell us?”

It's a Monday morning. Three scruffy-haired, bleary-eyed boys are sprawled on the crimson couches of Gryffindor tower before breakfast, one with his arms crossed angrily. A fourth boy has just descended the stairs from the dormitories.

“Tell you what?” asks Sirius. He holds out a hand and hauls Remus from his nest of cushions, James and Peter reluctantly digging themselves out. James is still scowling.

“Oh I don’t know,” he starts airily. “Maybe the fact that you managed to bag one of the hottest girls in school.” He scrambles through the portrait hole and drops the painting, letting it swing back to hit Sirius in the knees. A squawk from the Fat Lady follows them down the hallway.

“Er, no. In that case I wasn’t going to tell you, because I didn’t.”

“I just think you might have mentioned it, as we’re your best friends. Candice Slater loved being the one to fill me in on what you were doing.”

“I wasn’t doing anything!” Sirius exclaims, shoving open the door to the Great Hall and heading over to their usual places. “Who is it I’m meant to be dating anyway?” he grabs a slice of toast and butters it so vigorously it falls apart in his hands.

Remus hands him a napkin. “Candice said Nadia Thomas is saying you’re together,” he says, careful to keep his tone mild. Sirius shudders, his face darkening.

“Well, we’re not,” he balls up the greasy napkin and chucks it in the general direction of Snape, who had chosen that moment to walk past. “When was the last time I left the tower without one of you lot, anyway? You’d know if I was dating someone.”

“He’s got a point, Prongs,” pipes up Peter. He hates conflict, and tries to resolve Sirius and James’ spats as soon as possible, albeit with varying degrees of success.

“All right,” grumbles James. “Sorry mate. I just thought – well why would she lie? She’s beautiful and she knows it. Plus she’s two years older than us. No offence, but dating you wouldn’t exactly be a coup for her.” Sirius glares across the table, but James is looking at his porridge. He kicks him instead.

“I’m a catch,” he mutters sulkily. “But not her. Yuck.”

“What have you got against Nadia?” asks Remus. “I don’t know her, but she seems okay.” He nibbles on a slice of toast gingerly. The full moon had only been two days ago, and he's still feeling a bit shaky.

“She’s not even a Slytherin,” adds Peter. He spoons a second helping of runny scrambled eggs onto his plate, oblivious to the slightly green tinge of Remus’ face.

Sirius drops the crust of his third slice of toast to his plate, where it joins the others. “She’s just, I don’t know. _No._ There’s something about her that just makes me want to keep away.” He jiggles his hands in front of him in a shooing motion.

“Well,” says Remus. “That’s that then. You don’t like her and you’re not dating her. I imagine Candice just got the wrong end of the stick.”

 

\--

It wasn’t just Candice. Sirius kept denying it every chance he got, but by the time they reached Herbology that afternoon he felt like he’d corrected half the school, with little success. To make matters worse, James had taken up again. He sometimes wondered why he called the bespectacled twit his best friend.

“I guess I just don’t get it,” James carries on, pulling on his gloves and dodging the reach of the Venomous Tentacula. “All you’ve said is ‘no’ and ‘yuck’. There’s nothing yuck about Nadia Thomas. I mean, she looks like a model – and that hair – Pete, you would, right?”

Peter glances between his two friends, one growing steadily more thundery. “I suppose… I mean, I don’t know what we’d talk about I guess, I’d rather date someone I knew a bit…”

James sighs. “Whatever, that’s just an example. Any guy in this school would want her. I’m pretty devoted to Lily, as you know-“

-“as if we could forget-“ mutters Sirius.

“-but if she came up to me and asked? Well I’m not actually attached, am I? It would be a crime to turn her down. I wonder if anyone ever has…? No, stupid question.” He fixes Sirius with a stern look. “Because _no one would_.”

“Well she hasn’t asked me, has she? She’s just spread it around that we’re dating. I’ve never even spoken to her, for Merlin’s sake.”

“I have,” says James dreamily. “You remember that time in third year, in the library, Remus?”

Remus looks up from his seed tray. “I tend to frequent the library rather often, James. I’m not sure I recall one visit two years ago.” He turns back, poking sadly at the soil. There should have been shoots three inches high by now.

“She asked me for a spare quill. I never got it back either – she might still be using it now,” he looks rather pleased at the idea.

“Well why don’t you date her then,” Sirius snaps, pulling too hard on a seedling from his tray and breaking the tender stalk. “Damn.”

James looks as if he is considering the idea for a second, before visibly disentangling himself from the daydream. “Nah, not when I’ve got Lily-“

“-you haven’t ‘got Lily’-“

“-and besides, for some unknown reason it’s you she wants.” James casts an appraising eye over Sirius. Remus gives up on his non-existent seedlings and follows his gaze. Sirius is attractive; that can't be doubted. He's tall and tanned, and the girls seemed to like his smile, although to Remus it suggests that someone, somewhere, is finding themselves on the wrong end of a prank. Scowling and covered in soil, however, isn't his best look.

“You know, you’re the right sort of height to be on a level with her. No neck crick when kissing,” he turns to Peter with the air of a wise teacher imparting knowledge. “You have to think about these things. Me and Lily, for example? We’re pretty perfect too.”

“I’m not kissing her,” states Sirius. A shudder runs through him; an involuntary wiggle-shake that starts in his shoulders and ends with a slight hop. “There’s something bad about her. I’d rather – I’d rather kiss Moony.”

“Not me?!” To Sirius’ surprise, James looks genuinely offended. He relents.

“Or you. Or Pete. Or – God, I don’t know – Professor McGonagall!”

Remus grins. “Thank you Sirius, you know how to make a guy feel special. Classed in the same group as our middle-aged transfiguration professor.”

Sirius slings an arm around Remus’ shoulder, turning back to his work and allowing his scowl to soften slightly. “You know you’re always my first choice, mate. Then Professor McGonagall. Then Pete.” He looks back at James. “Then you,” he adds. James dumps a pot full of soil on his head.

 

\-- 

Tensions between the two friends thawed with the pot of soil, and by the time the next morning dawns, Sirius is feeling pretty positive. Despite his demanding morning hair routine, he makes it down to the sofas before James, and has time to compare his Ancient Runes homework with Remus’ and find some extra points to make about the intricacies of the rhombus shape.

In fact, his good mood lasts all the way out of the common room and down the corridors. It survives a run-in with Peeves on the second floor and even emerges unscathed from a meeting with Professor Hatley near the Charms classroom, who happens to remind him of the (as yet not started) 12-inch report that is due tomorrow. It can't survive bumping into Nadia Thomas.

“Sirius,” she glides across the corridor and comes to a stop, blocking their way to the Great Hall. “I’ve been hoping to catch you.” Her eyes sparkle and she quirks a perfectly made-up lip.

Sirius stops dutifully; he may not like her but he considers being openly rude a Slytherin trait. The rest of the Marauders halt a few feet away, trying to look busy and not like they're listening.

“I want to apologise – I think you may have heard some things-“

“We’re not dating Nadia, but pretty much the entire school thinks we are,” he interrupts.

“You know how things escalate I’m sure; you tell one person you like someone and before you know it half the school thinks wedding invitations are being sent…” Nadia trails off and runs a hand through her blonde hair. It falls back over her eyes immediately. She's one step away from awkwardly scuffing a toe on the floor.

“Right.”

“Uh, well – I mean I do like you Sirius. I know this wasn’t the way to go about it, but I would like to go out sometime,” she looks up at him hopefully.

Sirius shrugs, but aborts the movement quickly. “I’m not really…” It's strange to see Sirius, usually so confident, trying to find the words. “I’m not interested, Nadia,” he manages. “I don’t want to date you. Sorry.”

“Oh,” Nadia looks genuinely taken aback, but her eyes narrow. “Ok, I guess. Perhaps I’ll see you around.” With a hair flip, she stalks into the Great Hall and disappears among the Ravenclaws. After an awkward pause, the Marauders follow. They’ll have to rush breakfast now, if they want to get to Charms on time.

 

\-- 

The next day, unbelievably, none of the marauders are running late for breakfast. They meet in the common room as usual, Peter trailing a sheet of parchment (probably his half-finished Charms essay) along behind him. 

“Oi, Padfoot!” James shouts across the room. He's under the notice board, tacking up an invitation for 'pranks to order: reasonable prices'. “Hogsmeade visit this weekend,” he adds as Sirius reaches him. “I'm all out of Dungbombs, and I wanted to stock up on- hi, Remus...” he trails off.

“Hogsmeade visit?” Remus asks, lifting one hand to tear down the prank poster without even looking at it. “Great, these robes are on their last legs... We better get to breakfast,” he adds, and herds the four down to the Great Hall.

“Add Dungbombs to the list,” James hisses at Sirius. The other prankster always had a running tally of what needed re-ordering stuck to the inside of his trunk. Sirius grins and nods as Remus purposefully puts himself in between to two of them.

 

\-- 

A flurry of owls streams through an open window, circling the hall until they spy the recipients of their mail. Remus remembers the first time he saw this happen; the wonder and excitement of starting Hogwarts seemed inextricably wrapped up in the morning post. It was a ritual that heralded the start of each new day of learning on his path to becoming a qualified wizard; the first werewolf to attend Hogwarts in generations.

He picks a stray feather off the bacon platter and sets it to one side. After five years, the novelty has rather worn off.

A thunk to the left of him draws his attention. An owl with bad aim has dropped its letter in the porridge basin, but luckily the gloopy substance has absorbed the impact instead of splattering. Sirius gingerly draws the letter out, shaking off the excess porridge and giving it a wipe down with his napkin. The ink of the Black family crest smears with each stroke.

“What do they want?” asks James, his mouth full of breakfast.

“Dunno,” replies Sirius. It’s unusual for him to receive anything from his parents; if they’re taking the trouble to write, it probably means bad news. He opens the letter with his hand wrapped in a napkin, but no Bubotuber pus spills out. He draws out the letter. It looks like a perfectly ordinary piece of paper, but then curses are invisible. He lays it on the table to read.

 

_The Noble and Most_

_Ancient House of Black_  

_Sirius,_

_Regulus has informed us that you have rejected the advances of Nadia Thomas. I would remind you that the Thomas’ are an old, respected magical family and that a match would be advantageous to both sides. It took substantial negotiation to bring this into being, and, quite frankly, we are lucky that Nadia has kindly agreed to overlook your many faults._

_I only hope that by now her considerable charms have penetrated your wilful arrogance and allowed you to take advantage of what we have worked hard to provide for you. This is an opportunity to safeguard your future, Sirius. Do not deny her again._

_Orion Black._

 

“Substantial negotiation my arse… basically my dad paid her dad a load of money to put up with me,” Sirius crumples the letter into a ball and chuck it into the empty scrambled egg bowl. It will disappear with the rest of the leftover food and rubbish when breakfast finishes in a few minutes. “I knew there was something off about her.”

“So she’s just after you because she’s been paid to be?” James reaches for the letter and yelps. The tips of his fingers, where they had brushed the parchment, are bright red and sore-looking.

Sirius winces and drops his head into his hands. “Blood-activated burn hex,” he mutters. Remus whips out his wand and waves it over James’ hand until the red fades to a tender pink.

“Madam Pomfrey could fix it entirely,” he claps James and Sirius on the back. “Time for class though – James, I’ll tell Professor McGonagall you’ll be late.”

“Nah, it’s all right – this is fine,” James swings his bag over his shoulder, casting a worried look at Sirius who is still slumped with his head in his hands. “Padfoot?”

Sirius rises slowly and hoists his bag onto a shoulder. As he stands, the crumbs and detritus of breakfast – and the letter – vanish from the table. A moment later, the shiny gold cutlery and porcelain sink through the wood to the kitchen below.

“I just can’t believe they’re still – I mean – trying to organise and plan my whole life! They’d have had me married to her as soon as I graduated.”

“Sneaky, too,” adds Peter. “Choosing a Ravenclaw, I mean, someone you might think you could trust.”

“And she would get access to the Black family fortune,” adds James. “The Thomas’ might be an old magical family but they’re fast running out of money, my dad says.”

“Yeah yeah, it was a great plan, round of applause for my family – I could have ended up shackled to a conniving, money-grabbing bitch, you know!”

“But you didn’t,” reasons Remus, calmly, one hand patting Sirius gently on the shoulder. “You knew something was wrong. It seems your instincts are a lot better than ours.” 

They reach the door of the Transfiguration classroom, meaning its time to file in and stop talking. Sirius continues seething throughout the lesson, though, expressing his anger by turning his teapot into a fire-breathing dragon instead of a rabbit. Professor McGonagall just frowns, torn between berating him for deviating from the lesson plan and congratulating him on the detail he’d achieved on the dragon’s scales.

 

\-- 

At the classroom door, Sirius rouses himself from his funk long enough to wave goodbye to James and Peter. The pair were off to Divination (or Lily-watching time, as it could also be known) while Remus and Sirius had Ancient Runes.

As they amble along the North corridor, Sirius’ mood seems to lighten. Whether this is to do with the forthcoming lesson (Sirius is a favourite of Professor Watkins’ and can get away with almost anything, as long as he completes the work) or the increasing peace of the emptying corridors, Remus isn't sure. Its nice to see the scowl lift, though.

Until – disaster.

Rounding the corridor ahead is Nadia, and what’s more, she’s seen them already.

“Sirius!” she trills, the brush-off of yesterday seemingly forgotten. “How lucky we ran into each other.” Her robes are open at the front, showing off a tight blouse and skirt. She strokes her hair on the left hand side, finishing with a flick over her shoulders. She leans forward, edging Remus out of the picture so he is almost directly behind Sirius.

“Did you see the notices before breakfast?”

Sirius is holding himself ramrod straight. “No,” he answers, despite the conversation they’d had not much more than an hour ago.

“A Hogsmeade trip, next weekend,” she confirms. As she leans into Sirius space, he in turn had been inching back, so that now he is almost pressed against Remus’ front.

“No pressure, just you and me. A drink at that new teashop, Madam Puddifoots, perhaps? “ Her voice lowers, just a hair above a whisper. “We can give this thing a shot, you know?” She reaches out a hand like she's about to touch his chest, but stops just short. Sirius shivers; Remus can feel it through the whisper of robe on robe where Sirius is still shifting away from Nadia and into him, every muscle taut with tension, and that's enough.

“No.”

The word is calm, quiet, but with an edge to it. It echoes despite the noisy corridor. It takes Remus a moment to realise that he was the one who uttered it. 

Nadia turns to glare at him. Her hair whips round, falling gently into its trademark flawless waves. She smiles, with noticeable effort. “I think Sirius can speak for himself, uh-“

“Remus Lupin.” He snakes one arm around Sirius’ middle and stares steadily at Nadia. His chin is tickled as he rests it on Sirius’ shoulder; warmth bleeding through his robes and into Remus. A beat, and, almost imperceptibly, he feels Sirius start to relax.

“And no, he won’t date you. He’s told you that before. But do you know why?”

Part of Remus wants to bare his teeth at her even though he had nothing against her until she started moving in on Sirius. Now, he’s barely holding the wolf at bay. The full moon is still weeks away. Something of the predator must be seeping through anyway though; Nadia shakes her head in answer, silenced by him. It pleases him; he tightens his hold on Sirius, pulling him back so he moulds into his body, and feels his sharp intake of breath.

“He can’t date you, because he’s dating me.”

There’s a moment of silence that stretches like toffee. The three of them are frozen, in a buzzing corridor carrying on as usual, as if nothing has happened. Then, Sirius twists – Remus releases his grip immediately – what was he thinking – _claiming_ Sirius like that – but he’s stopped again by the feel of warm lips covering his own. 

A familiar hand is in his hair, another is dragging Remus’ stunned, unresponsive arms back around that waist. He surrenders to it, kissing Sirius as if he’ll never stop; desperate. He feels a blush rise through him as Sirius nibbles on his tongue and grasps him again tightly. He’s too warm all of a sudden, but it’s the thought of remedying that – stripping off his robes – that reminds him where he is. He pulls away reluctantly, still flushing hotly. Sirius’ eyes are staring back at him, bright and wide. 

The hallway is miraculously empty; classes must have begun, which means they’re late. Nadia is nowhere to be seen. Remus steps back, trying to reboot his brain. He straightens his robe and looks at his shoes as he tries, desperately, to bring his colour down. He must look like a tomato, because he certainly feels like he could offer up his face as a suitable surface if someone desperately needed to fry an egg.

“Well I did say I’d rather kiss you, Moony,” Sirius tucks an errant piece of hair behind Remus’ ear, hand falling to his shoulder and resting there. That’s it – any progress on the blush has been completely negated.

“I – um,” eloquent as always Remus - _pull yourself together._ “I’m sorry,” he blurts out. Sirius just tips his head to one side, confused. He tries to explain. “I think I just outed us. Nadia’s not going to not tell that story, she’ll be gossip queen for a month and now she has a reason for you turning her down all the time – like she’ll keep that to herself! We’re not even dating. God, we’re not even _gay_ and I just-“

He’s starting to panic but can’t bring himself to breathe. It’s not that he’s worried about how people will react; he’s used to expecting the worst from people, he’s a werewolf, its par for the course. But Sirius is _Sirius_ – he’s popular and people love him but he’s also still that little eleven-year old boy. The one desperate but unable to make up for being sorted into Gryffindor, for having non-Slytherin friends and increasingly strong opinions that don’t mesh with his mother’s. Sirius can’t have the world turn against him.

“Are you sorry?” Sirius looks unusually serious. He's meeting Remus gaze, but those eyes are dark and troubled, despite his continuing grip on Remus' shoulder. “Really, actually sorry?”

They're the only ones in the corridor and the bell has rung and they're late. But none of that matters. Remus knows he could apologise again and they'd get through this; they're too good friends to let it fizzle out. It would be okay, eventually. “No,” he whispers, letting one hand come up to play with and straighten Sirius' collar. “I'm kind of not.” 

Sirius smiles, but not his usual brash grin. Its a shy, private smile, followed up with a soft kiss. It's a smile Remus wants to keep to himself.

“Okay then,” Sirius replies. “I can work with that.”

 

\--

The whole school does know. The details are hazy, and somehow (miraculously) the details of their conversation haven't got out, but they're the talk of the hallways for weeks.

James and Peter were put out at first, probably a combination of finding out second-hand, worries about sharing a room if they were going to be getting up to (“things,” Peter had muttered darkly) and concerns over group dynamics. But they got over it. Sirius' family disowned him, and, well – I suppose the rest of the story you know.


End file.
